After record 2011 growth, mining maintains key role
FINANCE Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh has disclosed that the mining and quarrying sector recorded growth of 19.2 percent in 2011.
During his presentation of the 2012 National Budget, last Friday, he said, underlying this was a 17.7 percent increase in raw gold declarations to 363,083 ounces, the highest level since 2004 when Omai Gold Mines was still in operation. He said favourable world market prices persisted in 2011 and induced significant continued investment in the sector.
While this is so, bauxite production amounted to 1,818,399 tonnes, compared to 1,082,512 tonnes in 2010 and diamond declarations grew by 4.7 percent to 52,273 carats, despite the continued shift of productive capacity into the more lucrative gold industry.
He said the bauxite industry has served as an important traditional contributor to overall economic performance.
According to Singh, even as Guyana promotes diversification and creation of alternative job opportunities in and around the bauxite communities, to reduce their dependence on this industry, efforts remain unabated to facilitate the emergence of a growing and more competitive bauxite industry, despite challenging and unpredictable external circumstances.
The global market for bauxite continues to show mixed signs. In 2011, while the refractory market continued to recover, the metallurgical bauxite market in the Atlantic Region faced a declining price for alumina in the face of excess capacity and supply, he reported.
Despite this, 2011 saw an expansion of production by both companies operating in Guyana. BCGI’s production of 1.3 million tonnes represented a 61 percent increase over 2010, largely driven by improving production equipment and mining practices.
Meanwhile, Bosai saw an expansion in refractory bauxite production by 10 percent in volume, to over 203,000 tonnes in 2011.

Investment
“Under this Government, the value of investment in the bauxite industry since privatisation has been in excess of US$200 million,” the Finance Minister told the National Assembly.
He added that, over the next four years, a new wave of expansion is expected that will see even larger sums being invested.
Further, Singh added that, in 2012, Bosai will start construction of a third kiln aimed at expanding RASC production by 150,000 tonnes per annum and the production of a facility to produce 75,000 tonnes per annum of mullite.
“These two projects alone will create 500 jobs during construction and see over US$100 million being invested. BCGI is similarly poised for expansion with over US$30 million of mining equipment being delivered to Guyana early this year,” he revealed.
He told Parliament that, over the next four years, more than US$80 million will be spent to expand the Berbice operation to a level capable of producing five million tonnes of bauxite per annum.
According to him, BCGI projects that at least another 450 jobs will be created.
Singh said a third bauxite company; First Bauxite Inc. is projected to start construction of its refractory operations in Bonasika in the latter part of 2012, with an investment in excess of US$120 million.
Meantime, the gold sector maintained its position as the largest contributor to total mineral output and returned a record year in 2011 with domestic mine production surpassing the Omai Gold Mine highest output by 2.5 percent and recording a third consecutive year above the 300,000 ounce mark.
He said, in relation to the small and medium scale gold mining sector, over US$100 million were invested last year, mainly as a result of high gold prices and it is envisaged that, for 2012, the figure is expected to increase.